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Discusses using time management to help reduce stress. Covers prioritizing tasks, controlling procrastination, and managing commitments. Offers interactive tool to help test what you've learned. Provides links to more info on stress management.

Discusses using time management to help reduce stress. Covers prioritizing tasks, controlling procrastination, and managing commitments. Offers interactive tool to help test what you've learned. Provides links to more info on stress management.

Stress Management: Managing Your Time

Introduction

Time management is a way to find the
time for all the things you want and need to do. It helps you decide which
things are urgent and which can wait. Learning how to manage your time,
activities, and commitments can be hard. But doing so can make your life
easier, less
stressful, and more meaningful.

When you manage your time, you decide which
tasks and activities are most important to you. Knowing what's important helps
you decide how best to spend your time.

There are three parts to
time management: prioritize tasks and activities, control procrastination, and
manage commitments.

How can you manage your time?

You can start managing
your time by prioritizing tasks, controlling procrastination, and managing your
commitments.

Prioritize tasks

Make a list of all your tasks and activities for the day or week. Then
rate these tasks by how important or urgent they are.

Urgent tasks are those
that must be done right away to avoid a major problem, such as paying the
electric bill today because your electricity will be
turned off tomorrow. Many people never deal with important things until they
become urgent. This approach always leads to stress.

Important tasks are those that are meaningful or important to
you, such as spending time with your family, helping friends, or getting
exercise. They are also tasks you must do to avoid a problem, such as paying
bills or meeting a deadline at work.

Not important tasks are ones that don't need to be done or that aren't
important to you.

After you have your list and have rated the items, think
about how you are spending your time. If you take care of important tasks in a
timely way, you won't have as many urgent tasks to worry about. For example, if
you pay your bills when you get them, you won't have to juggle your finances
and hurry to pay bills the day they are due.

Think about how
you can redirect your time to activities that are important and meaningful to
you. Are you spending a lot of time on things that aren't important or urgent?
Maybe there are things that you don't need to do at all.

Control procrastination

The more stressful or
unpleasant a task, the more likely you are to put it off. This only increases
your stress. You may want to try these tips for controlling
procrastination:

Structure your time.
Use a day planner or notebook to plan your day or week. Just seeing on paper
that there is a time to get your tasks done can help you get to work. For
shorter projects, use a timer or alarm clock to help you stick with your
plan.

Break up large tasks. If you know
that you won't be able to focus on a project for 3 hours, break up your work
into 1-hour blocks over 3 days. It's easier to face an unpleasant task if the
time you are giving it is brief.

Create short-term deadlines. Short-term deadlines will help you make a habit of meeting
deadlines. It will also force you to get things done. That way, when the
long-term deadline does arrive, you won't have as much pressure and work built
up.

Avoid perfectionism. If you demand
perfection, you might not even start a task because you're worried it won't be
perfect. Doing your best is fine. Giving yourself enough time to do your best
will reduce stress.

If you find a tip that works for you, stay with it. Over
time you'll gain confidence that you can beat the procrastination habit.

You may still slip up sometimes and find yourself putting things
off. That's okay. Don't blame yourself. Confidence and positive thinking can
help you get back on track.

Manage your commitments

Both too many and too few commitments can lead
to stress.

Letting go of a commitment
doesn't mean giving up. It means learning what's important to you, recognizing
that you have limits, and deciding how you want to spend your time. Here are
some tips for letting go:

Don't commit to things that are not important
to you.

When you want or need to let go of something, imagine tying
it to a helium balloon, releasing the balloon, and watching it float away.

Accept that your life is a "work in progress." You don't have to
finish every project or meet every goal in your life by tomorrow or even next
week. If one of your goals is less important, you can work on it later in your
life.

Making commitments can be just as
hard as letting them go. People who are under stress tend to have too many
commitments instead of too few. But sometimes stress comes from a lack of
commitment. If you need more commitment in your life, think about what is most
important to you. When you are ready to commit:

Do it. Give yourself to
a new commitment as fully as you can.

Be responsible. Take your commitment seriously. Don't back out of
obligations.

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